Low-power wireless receivers are very important for a multitude of applications. For example, a mobile handset such as a cellular telephone or the like may include various portions of circuitry, one of which is a low-power receiver that enables the mobile handset to receive information (e.g., voice, data, etc.) from a transmitter. Such receivers may be used in communication systems operating using wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. Wireless receivers typically consume 5-10 milliamperes (mA) of current. It would be desirable to reduce this current consumption even further.
In an effort to reduce current consumption further, some designs include regenerative receiver, super-regenerative receiver, etc. However, the drawback to receivers such as super-regenerative receivers is that such receivers typically have both poor linearity and poor blocking performance. An additional or alternative approach to reducing receiver current consumption is to reduce the number of analog stages required in the receiver, thereby making a more digital receiver.